American election, what's your call

[Halcyon Daze]

Don't worry yourself sick about the future, Thunder. No matter who wins or loses there is no silver bullet to the world's problems, nor will it be the end of the world etc.

 

Just gotta roll with the punches sometimes.

Edited October 15, 2016 by Halcyon Daze

[ThunderIdeal]

I'm excited.

 

The masquerade cant go on forever.

Edited October 15, 2016 by ThunderIdeal

[ThunderIdeal]

I'll just leave this here, but with one comment.

 

I dont mind seeing obama, but when he talks, I want to cut my ears off and use them to gag him.

 

 

 

[ThunderIdeal]

On 08/10/2016 at 9:09 AM, Halcyon Daze said:

 

 

 

 

 

Some nerve of Deniro to say Trump doesnt pay his taxes.  Deniro is a tax evader and owes millions, unlike Trump who is not a tax evader.

 

Celebrity endorsements....

 

 

[ThunderIdeal]

https://atlanticcenturion.wordpress.com/2016/10/15/why-donald-trump-is-the-anti-war-candidate/

 

From the Jordan to the Moskva, war drums beat. The powder keg that set off the first world war was ethno-religious conflict in the lands of the former Ottoman Empire, and in a sense it threatens to do so once more. The Balkan nations were not impressed with the botched settling of the Eastern Question, and a mix of state and non-state actors took matters into their own hands, leading to a globalized conflict. As late as 2006,  the borders of the region were still being contested, when Montenegro voted to break away from Serbia.

Today, millions of people in the Levant, especially in Syria and Iraq, reject the imposed settlement of their borders. These were drawn by imperialists and zionists nearly a century ago under the Sykes-Picot Agreement to serve the interests of Britain, France, and the overseas Israeli community—and the successors of those diplomats wish to maintain those same borders. The ethno-religious conflict I am  referring to in the former Ottoman Empire is of course the:

1. Syrian civil war
2. Iraqi civil war
3. Turkish-Kurdish conflict
4. American intervention in Iraq
5. American intervention in Syria
6. Iranian intervention in Iraq
7. Iranian intervention in Syria
8. Russian intervention in Syria
9. Hezbollah campaign in Syria
10. Yemeni civil war
11. Libyan civil war
12. NATO intervention in Libya
13. Egyptian counter-insurgency
14. War on Terror / global Islamic jihad
15. US-Russian Middle Eastern proxy war
16. Arab-Israeli conflict

 

Oh. Too many? This is the scope of conflicts that the Leviathan on the Potomac has gotten itself into, and just in the former Ottoman Empire. This does not include the:

1. South China Sea territorial dispute
2. Korean civil war
3. War in Afghanistan
4. Russian-Ukrainian border war
5. Combat support in various African countries
6. Occupation of Germany

In November, Americans will roll to the polls on their motorized scooters to elect the next Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the United States. Hillary Clinton has a track record of following neoconservative foreign policy imperatives that favor “exporting” democracy and disrupting the enemies of Israel, such as Baathist (Arab nationalist) Iraq and Syria. Or as Republicans put it, “muh benghazi.” The Alt-Rightcleverly notes that combined with America’s post-1965 immigration laws, this is a policy of “Invade the World, Invite the World.” If not for the dual policies of bombing Muslims and importing Muslims, the United States would be a radically different society. Instead of a bomb-sniffing watchdog state, we might have a night watchman state (like we used to). As late as 2000, some airline pilots would let you into the cockpit, especially if you had a small child with you who wanted to see it. Now even lingering at the front of the plane for to long means you’re a terrorist.

But it’s more than just a cultural change and anxiety about being in crowded, target-rich, or sensitive areas. The United States is required to spend billions of dollars a year now in order to prevent the next 9/11, which could have easily been prevented by not allowing immigration from Saudi Arabia, a country which practices shariah law, polygamy, and beheading of religious dissidents. Indeed, the surveillance and counterterrorism operations the United States is required to carry out against its citizens in the name of security as a result of mass immigration from outside of Europe put the state police of bygone regimes to shame. East Germany would be envious.

The other option is Donald Trump.

Donald Trump has never played a role in the shattering of nations or in conducting airstrikes against embittered medieval tribespeople. He has never been blamed for the death of an American ambassador or his staff. He has never chuckled about killing Muammar Gaddafi, whose autocratic and idiosyncratic rule of Libya raised living standards, generated oil wealth for his people, and prevented Islamist terror movements from spreading in a region where that is a problem. He has spoken favorably of Saddam Hussein, who likewise while imperfect did not preside over a millennarian civil war between two strains of jihadists and nationalist-secularists. There is something to be said for leaving these parts of the world to their own devices, even if it means they don’t get an American or parliamentary democracy. They can live without it. In fact, they literally live without it. What is happening right now in Syria and Iraq and Libya and Afghanistan and other hotspots is not life. It is death, and it is being funded with your tax dollars. By a Democratic administration that is fighting to preserve disputed borders in foreign countries while neglecting our own.

Obama and Clinton get away with warmongering because they aren’t George W. Bush. But short of committing tens of thousands of ground troops, they are doing almost the same thing he did in Iraq and Afghanistan. Perhaps worse because of the low human cost of the war to the Western side, we could potentially intervene in this conflict for, well, as long as the drone program is funded and fuel is loaded into our planes. There is no attrition. Just us turning various cities into replicas of Guernica. No bodies are sent home; no one cares.

This would be bad enough on its own. But Obama and Clinton also want to import hundreds of thousands of Muslims to the United States. Muslims are not stupid people. They know the United States has been bombing Muslim countries for the past 15 years (and inserting itself into other conflicts since the 1960s, particularly on behalf of Israel). They also know that a large amount of Americans are uncomfortable with Muslims being here. They have customs that are frankly incompatible with Western secular liberal society (for what it’s worth at least).

Thus you have two problems here: 1.) an internationalist solidarity with other Muslims who, correctly, see the United States as oppressing them, and 2.) living in a country which they cannot truly be integrated into because ofthe political demands Islam makes not as a Westphalian-style Christian sect but as a system of government and social organization. This produces tension. It produces risk. It has produced terrorism in Europe and in the United States. Ask yourself this, how many attacks would you be willing to tolerate before you think restricting Muslim migration is a good choice? At what body count do you say enough is enough? Do you want to find out?

Don’t start saying, “well they were born here so they were Americans, not immigrants.” I hear that quite often. America indeed has had a number of “home-grown” jihadists. But if I were born in Saudi Arabia to oil industry contractors from Texas, no one would call me an Arab or a Muslim. I would be an American expat. Most countries do not have jus soli. Being born on American soil doesn’t make you an agnostic WASP. In fact, if you understand anything about immigration, you’d understand that many immigrants move to highly diverse places such New York or California, where not only do they frequently live in pre-existing immigrant communities of their co-ethnics, but also often live in broader areas where there is no majority to assimilate to in the first place. They have children there too. Can you become an “American” if you spend all your time around, say, Afghans, Russian Jews, Puerto Ricans, and Chinese people? Or do you take trips back to Afghanistan (Orlando shooter) or Saudi Arabia (San Bernardino shooters) or wherever and then decide you want to reconnect with the ongoing struggles of your religious and ethnic cousins? Some of them do. And it matters that some of them do.

Trump wants to solve the entire Muslim problem in a few executive orders. He says Iran and Russia are fighting ISIS. He’s right. We should work together. We shouldn’t be saber rattling at the Russians for supporting the de jure government of the Syrian people while we’re the ones bankrolling and arming a violent and uncontrollable rebellion against an established government. An untraceable amount of arms we give the Syrian insurgents may end up in jihadist hands. The idea that we can just gift weapons to the special “moderate” rebels is totally bunk. What if they are defeated in battle and those weapons get captured? By the Syrian government? By ISIS? What if they sell them? We have no control over this. Aleppo is not worth a nuclear holocaust, and by any measure, the United States is the villain here, funding a violent Islamic revolution.

More importantly, Trump recognizes that the importation of Islam into the United States is a terrible idea. There are dozens of Muslim countries. Many are extremely wealthy and could take in Muslim refugees and immigrants, who would fit in better in Arabic-speaking Muslim nations than an English-speaking and predominately European and Christian nation. Why subject ourselves and our Democrat-sponsored guests to alienation and even racism?

There is only one United States. How much of it are you personally willing to give up because there is a civil war somewhere in another country, or because a group of foreigners want to come here to earn higher wages? Is that all that matters to you? Virtue signalling and materialism?

Trump wants to end war in Syria and Iraq by working with the Russians and Iranians to defeat the number one enemy of international peace, which is ISIS. He also wants a moratorium on the importation of violent overseas ethnoreligious conflict into the United States.

Clinton wants to continue fighting the de jureAssad government, which benefits ISIS vis-a-vis just as much as it benefits the “moderate” rebels and non-ISIS jihadist groups. At the same time, she also wants to make the United States incrementally more Muslim each year. That’s how immigration works—less x and more y each year. Why recreate Syria in Seattle? Iraq in Idaho?

Trump wants to end the wars abroad and at home. He wants to put America First. What does Clinton want to put first?

[ThunderIdeal]

Assange's internet cut! Lol he is a hacker I doubt he didnt anticipate this.

 

9 Trump accusers to allow the media distract from 9 wikileak dumps.

 

I guess they had difficulties procuring distraction #10

 

[☽Ţ ҉ĥϋηϠ₡яღ☯ॐ€ðяئॐ♡Pϟiℓℴϟℴ]

if you're strapped for time skip to 14 minute mark for the chase on the elections in this vid -that I thought might freshen a few eyes

 

[☽Ţ ҉ĥϋηϠ₡яღ☯ॐ€ðяئॐ♡Pϟiℓℴϟℴ]

whoah , i didnt see those posts above (didnt switch to page 3 before posting)  ..

thanks Thunder !

 

well I don't think I can elaborate further than that which so clearly and articulately explains the issue at stake.

 

also , on the subject of being a plant forum ... i personally have severe issues with disrupting the origin soils of the peganum harmala ..

and there's so many good natural ancient plant foods I'd rather buy from the eastern side than from stolen lands on the coastal border opposite africa...

[ThunderIdeal]

It spells some stuff out.  I churn through this stuff every day, no single page can substitute for that kind of context.

 

This one is for laughs but its actually a sad, sad indictment of journalism

 

https://www.rt.com/viral/362696-rt-beats-internet-podesta/

 

...to think that these clowns hold so much sway over public opinion

 

And horse... UK just closed RTs bank accounts.  That walking mop you call foreign minister must have given the order to go full retard

Edited October 17, 2016 by ThunderIdeal

[nothinghead]

back on topic, has anyone been watching the seppo debates? i don't know what's more underwhelming, their expectations of public awareness (though maybe they're spot on for their intended audience), or the lack of meaningful engagement. It's like their entire training was on how Clarke and Dawe would address hot button issues.

[ThunderIdeal]

Everything has been on topic and yes, public awareness is shocking especially casting my eye around.

 

It was better than the PM debate here.

 

Now look, or read

 

 

http://planetfreewill.com/2016/10/17/hillary-campaign-operatives-admit-starting-chicago-riot-shut-trump-rally/

 

 

[ThunderIdeal]

http://thesaker.is/by-way-of-deception-thou-shalt-lose-your-empire/

 

 

“For nothing is hidden that will not be made manifest, nor is anything secret that will not be known and come to light”
Holy Gospel according to Saint Luke (8:17)

“There’s an old saying in Tennessee — I know it’s in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can’t get fooled again.”
George W Bush

In April of 2014 I wrote an article entitled “How the Ukrainian crisis will eventually bring down the AngloZionist Empire” in which I made a list of the similarities between the Soviet Union of the 1980s and Obama’s USA and wrote the following:

What the AngloZionist are openly and publicly defending in the Ukraine is the polar opposite of what they are supposed to stand for. That is an extremely dangerous thing to do for any regime and the AngloZionist Empire is no exception to that rule. Empire often crumble when their own people become disillusioned and disgusted with massive discrepancy between what the ruling elites say and what they do. And as a result, it is not so much that the Empire is faced with formidable enemies as it is the fact that nobody is willing to stand up – nevermind die – in defense of it.

Over two years later, watching the Presidential race between Trump and Hillary I am amazed to see how deep and “in your face” the habit of lying, denying the obvious, deceiving and otherwise misrepresenting has permeated the US political discourse.

First and foremost, there is the absolutely unabashed way the corporate Ziomedia is bashing Trump without even so much as a pretense of objectivity or truthfulness. Of course, I always new that the US propaganda machine was lying and that the media was owned by the US deep state, but at least there was this thin veneer or pseudo-objectivity, of having “both sides” heard. Now this is over. When dealing with Trump, we have Orwell’s “Two Minutes of Hate” but spread over 24/7. Not that Trump does not deserve some of it, he sure does, but compared to how real scumbags like the Clintons are treated, the lynching of Trump is, I believe, unprecedented and unique. Why does it matter? Because now the masks have been taken off, the pretenses removed, and what you see is the true face of the corporate media as it always was: hateful, hypocritical and totally corrupted. And since a truly free and independent media is central to a functioning democracy, then the total corruption of the media in the USA is also the proof that this country does not have a functioning democracy.

Second, there are the completely surreal events happening in Syria: the US betrayal of the agreement signed with Russia, the US threats to attack Syria (in total illegality), the crocodile tears about the humanitarian situation in Aleppo (and the blind eye to Yemen), the mind-blowing hypocrisy of the USA wanting to take the Syrians and the Russians to an international criminal court for war crimes, the now absolutely open support for al-Qaeda (aka al-Nusra, aka Jabhat Fateh al-Sham aka Daesh) and the threats to arm them, the open threats by Admiral Kirby to have Russian aircraft shot down, Russian cities bombed and Russians soldiers come back in body bags – we now see an Administration which has gone completely “mental” over Syria and which does not even know what it is doing. To say that the 1000-4000 US servicemen and contractors currently deployed in Syria are “serving their country” or “defending democracy” or “our way of life” is simply laughable and everybody knows that. But nobody says a word about it. In fact, their presence in Syria is hardly ever mentioned.

This Kafkaesque slouching towards war with Russia is simply never discussed by any pundit or media outlet. It’s like it’s not happening, but of course it is happening, right before our eyes. The Russian officials speak about this every day, so does the Russian media, it is one of the most discussed topics on TV, and yet in the “land of the brave home of the free” this is a kind of Orwellian “untopic” which, by consensus, has no existence, no reality and no relevance: The Neocons’ crazy policies risk turning the USA into a gigantic pile of radioactive ashes, but the topic which preoccupies everybody is Trump’s potty-mouth about women.

I don’t know about you, but I see more nobility in the Titanic’s chamber orchestra playing the waltz “

” as long as the ship could still float then in the pathetic spectacle which the (equally sinking) AngloZionist Empire offers to us today.

On the external front, the Empire is also doubling down on its lies. Here are a few headlines which were recently seen in 5^th columnist newspapers in Russia and their colleagues abroad:

Headline	Reality
“Patriarch Kirill bans abortions in Russia”	Patriarch Kirill, along with other religious leaders, signed a statement saying that abortions should not be paid for by the state.
“Russian women will be forced to give birth”
“Employees will be fired for using Whatsapp or similar messaging services”	State employee are banned from using messaging services to transmit work-related or classified information.
“Tolstoi and Dostoevsky are now banned from Russian schools”	Various officials are discussing in what grade Russian classical authors should be studied.

These are just a few recent examples. Such garbage is published by the pro-western “yellow” press in Russia and by the western corporate media on an almost daily basis.

Of course, the Neocons have always ruled “by way of deception”, as did the Anglo rulers of the British Empire, but in modern Russia they are now hitting a number of obstacles which greatly complicates their work:

1) Putin has done an excellent job slowly but surely booting out the worst russophobes from the main Russian TV and radio channels. Of course, some are left, very deliberately (I explain the reason for that in detail here) but they surely don’t control the media like they did in the 1990s.

2) In the age of the Internet, it takes just days to debunk the lies of Uncle Sam, the Neocons or the Russian 5^th columnists (for the latest example seehere).

3) Russians remember the 1990s and they follow very closely what is happening across the border in the Nazi occupied Ukraine and they realize that what the Ukraine is undergoing today is what Russia had to suffer in the 1990s and would have to live through again if the pro-western forces ever came back to power. In a way, you could say that the Russians have been “vaccinated” against the AngloZionist propaganda.

I think that while the situation is still much worse in the USA, there are also some very encouraging signs that the lies are beginning to wear off. While there are still millions who believe the Idiot-Box or simply don’t have the energy to think any more, there are also millions who are thoroughly disillusioned, cynical, disgusted and angry at the parasitic elites which rule over them. By and large, the corporate media is deeply distrusted. As for journalists, they are about as respected as lawyers and medical doctors (amazing how these two noble professions got completely discredited by their practitioners in just a few decades!). We can speculate for hours over whether Trump still has a chance to win the next election or not, but I submit that, judging by their panicked actions, the Neocons clearly believe that he might. And that terrifies them. The are clearly afraid that those whom they consider as their dumb serfs might revolt against their rule (as has happened so many times in history).

I know that there are many out there who do not trust Trump. And I agree with them. I don’t trust him either. However, while I do not “trust” Trump, I admit that it is possible that he really might be a President who would put the interests of the American people first, and the interests of the AngloZionist Empire a distant second. The history of empires is full of situations were one part of the ruling class turned against the other one (SA vs SS, Trotskists vs Stalinists, etc.). There is no reason to dismiss a priori the possibility that there is a schism inside the US deep state, that one part wants to save the Empire as the expense of the USA (the Neocons) and another wants to save the USA at the expense of the Empire (the Trump supporters). Again, I did not say that this is likely, only that I admit that this is possible. And if that is really a possibility, could it not also be possible that the American people would deliberately vote against their own mass media and political elites, just like the British people chose the Brexit in total defiance of the official doxa? That all the Trump-bashing actually could help him get elected?

Could it be that after losing Russia to their lies, the Neocons will now lose the United States to their apparently incurable propensity to rule by deception?

For years I used to dismiss the US Presidential elections like a joke, a fraud and an exercise in collective brainwashing. This time around, and for the first time, I think that there is a possibility, however slim, that something of importance might be decided on November 8. The fact that such a possibility even appeared is, by itself, quite remarkable and it is yet another sign of how deep the systemic crisis of the Empire has become. As for the parasites who form the 1% who run this Empire, they are clearly in a panic mode, probably because they are much better informed than most of us of how truly catastrophic the situation really is.

A Hillary victory will not change any of it. It will only make it much, much more dangerous. With Trump, there is at least a possibility of a gradual, more or less organized withdrawal, a drawdown of sorts, a transition of the USA from being a wannabe World Hegemon into a USA as a major, but “normal”, country. Very much like Russia today, I hope.

With Hillary we can be sure the Empire will double down, continue to lie to itself and the rest of the planet, and deny it all, making the end inevitably very violent, possibly catastrophic. I would not put it past the “crazies in the basement” to prefer a nuclear holocaust (their favorite topic!) to a liberation of the USA, and the rest of the planet, from their demonic power. It is therefore our duty to prevent them from succeeding from destroying our planet.

The Saker

[freakazoid]

^ wow, that was a real interesting post ( seriously ) it's even got me switching to... Maybe it won't be so bad if Trump gets in. Never thought i'd say that before this very moment. But i still think there's way too many kakistrocracies in the western world in particular....

Edited October 18, 2016 by freakazoid
Spelling correction

[ThunderIdeal]

A single penny hath dropped

 

Kakistocracy a government led by the least principled or qualified.  

 

How is an incredibly successful businessman in any way the least qualified to run a country which was built on enterprise?

 

Sorry to argue after your capitulation but I've had it with everyone bagging out Trump whilst showing turning a blind eye to what he's up against.

 

 

[freakazoid]

Well, I guess it depends on your definition of "incredibly successful businessman" i've heard his net worth is minus $300 million, he's been bankrupt 4 times, his university failed, his Trump steaks failed, his Trump bourbon failed, his Trump casino failed...( HTF do you fail at a casino! ) he inherited most of his money from his Ku Klux clansman father who inherited it from his german immigrant, brothel running grandfather, with countless lawsuits and countless contractors/employees totally ripped off... But now i'm just mostly quoting John Oliver ( with a little bit of wikipedia thrown in )  successful?

 

I don't think it's a country based on enterprise. It hasn't been that way for about a hundred years. I see it as country based on Domination and exploitation so with this in mind maybe, just maybe Trump would run things better than Hilary.

[ThunderIdeal]

Yes, incredibly successful.

 

What I am TRYING to do here, is illustrate that bullshit has become so prevalant that it seems to be rolling through everyone's bullshit meter like an avalanche.

 

Trump has created 100-odd businesses and some of them failed, see if you or anyone can do better.  His father was never a huge deal wealth wise.  As for minus 300 million the lowest serious estimate of his wealth is 3 billion but yeah, minus 300 million sounds better if you are part of an utterly shameless systematic effort to heap shit on a guy 24/7.

 

Your insinuation that Trump specialises in domination and exploitation is, I dunno, care to elaborate?

 

Am I getting through to anybody?  

 

salubrious, do I need to manually debunk your pedofile story or what?

Edited October 18, 2016 by ThunderIdeal

[ThunderIdeal]

This is an information war and we are all getting pounded in no-mans-land!  

 

Here is a great video, dont worry about the source.  Every word is quite accurate and concise, I'd love to hear if you can explain differently.

 

 

Every word 

 

 

Hillary is their STALINGRAD!  What a perfect analogy.

Edited October 18, 2016 by ThunderIdeal

[ThunderIdeal]

Look at these pair of bald faced lying dishonest deceivers.

 

 

2016: Journalists are officially worse than lawyers and real estate agents put together.

[DiscoStu]

 

wow doonal trum is such acreep totally unfit for any position in the white house

[paradox]

John Pilger: why Hillary Clinton is more dangerous than Donald Trump

[ThunderIdeal]

Hahahahahhaha, google project veritas, or Robert creamer

 

Massive history of election rigging, obama heavily implicated.  Hillary's campaign just relieved creamer.

 

Stories breaking now

 

I wonder what crock of shit story the media hacks will focus US attention on now, and whether our media do their own digging for once...

 

 

Edited October 19, 2016 by ThunderIdeal

[ThunderIdeal]

8 hours ago, DiscoStu said:

 

wow doonal trum is such acreep totally unfit for any position in the white house

 

Mmmmmmmm, wives n childrins

[etherealdrifter]

the petal and i read and laughed because it all sounds so simple.

the candidates are both simple in many ways and the author of the article articulates his views in a simple way.

a real quick read, however we both do not endorse the article

bs meter set to high....

Blue-collar conservatives should start their own party

by Dave Cieslewicz

October 18, 2016

 

 

 

David Michael Miller

 

Let’s just say for the sake of argument that Paul Ryan is right.

When the House Speaker said that he was cutting his losses and forsaking his party’s presidential nominee while focusing on keeping Republicans in charge of Congress, he was essentially throwing in the towel on Donald Trump.

A lot can happen in three weeks, but with Hillary Clinton’s lead widening (it’s up to seven points here in Wisconsin), it seems increasingly likely that our country will have avoided the disaster of a Trump presidency. Still, even after Nov. 8, the Republicans will have to deal with the disaster of his candidacy.

Since Richard Nixon’s southern strategy in 1968 the GOP has been an increasingly uneasy coalition of traditional country club Republicans and blue-collar conservatives. Country club Republicans tend to be college-educated suburbanites who are moderate if not liberal on social issues. They like free trade and tolerate immigration because they need immigrants in their businesses. If they’re religious they belong to a mainline Protestant sect.

By contrast, blue-collar conservatives tend to have high school educations, live in rural areas, and are very socially conservative. They oppose both trade deals and immigration because they see those things as threatening their jobs. They’re evangelicals or conservative Catholics. They distrust Wall Street.

What held these disparate groups together was a lie or rather a series of lies. These lies were told by a Republican establishment that co-opted blue-collar conservatives by telling them they cared about their issues, mostly hot-button ones like guns, gays and God. Republican strategists found that as long as their party took hard line conservative stances on things like abortion, the Second Amendment and gay marriage, they could get millions of blue-collar conservatives into their tent; this allowed the establishment to pursue the policies they really cared about: lower taxes on the wealthy and less regulation on their businesses.

Now Donald Trump has blown that to smithereens. He’s exposed the fault lines, and it’s doubtful that they can ever be patched up again. It’s clear now to Trump’s base of righteously angry blue-collar conservatives that they’ve been used. The Republican establishment never much cared about abortion, and it was actually working against blue-collar desires on trade and immigration.

To make matters worse for the GOP, the primaries pretty much wiped out their future cast of national leaders. None of the parade of establishment candidates who ran in the primaries with Trump has a chance of claiming his mantle. That crowded field ended up destroying virtually the entire Republican bench because they’ve all now been exposed as establishment drones.

Trump’s running mate, Mike Pence, might have some chance of keeping the party together going into 2020. Pence earned his blue-collar credentials by running with Trump (and remaining more or less loyal to him on most days), and yet, as a career politician with a smooth style, he’s likely (unlike Trump) to keep the establishment comfortable.

But Pence’s problem is that at some point he’ll have to take his own positions on a host of issues. A dyed-in-the-wool Christian conservative, he won’t waiver on red meat social issues. But if he cozies up to Wall Street or sounds too reasonable on trade (yeah, I’m basically in the free trade camp myself), he’ll turn off the establishment. The cracks in the Republican façade are not likely to be bridged by any one man or woman.

So what do you do if you truly believe that abortion and gay marriage are wrong but you also believe that trade pacts, immigration and Wall Street are conspiring to hurt your family’s well-being? You now know that the Republicans will pander to you on social issues so that they can win your votes, only to work against your interests on economic matters. And the Democrats are hopeless from your point of view because of their social liberalism.

The answer is a third party, one that’s conservative on social issues and populist on economic concerns. An anti-abortion, pro-gun, pro-religious charter schools, anti-immigration, anti-trade, isolationist, Main Street over Wall Street, tax-the-rich-to-feed-the-poor party.

This could be a sizable group. If there are 130 million votes cast for president this year and Trump gets only 40 percent (which would be the definition of a blowout defeat) that would still mean that he gets about 52 million votes. If only half of that is made up of blue-collar conservatives as I describe them here, that’s 26 million presidential voters. And, because these folks vote religiously in more ways than one, that probably represents an even more potent force in off-year and local elections.

Close readers of this column will have discerned that I would not count myself as a blue-collar conservative. But if I were one, I’d form my own party.

 

 

[ThunderIdeal]

Are you not entertained?

 

Then you haven't been watching.  If nothing else its the most intriguing series of events I can remember and it will only get better.  Make sure yoi dont miss it!

 

 

[SayN]

TBH i'm pretty much over the whole thing.  The thought of either of them at the helm gives me the heebie jeebies. 

 

And because I am a mere pawn in this world and know absolutely nothing of whats really going on, I cannot form a firm opinion on the old media conspiracy smear campaign stuff. 

 

This waiting though...